Recall: The +ve One (First Trimester)

As of 4th July 09, Xavier's official weight and height is 9kg and 68cm respectivaly. That puts him in the 97th percentile in terms of weight and 90th percentile in terms of height.

As I started the blog on Xavier 3 months late, I am gonna start a series of posts under "Recall" which will highlight the major events to date, starting from "The +ve one".

Trying for a baby didn't come easy for us. It took one and a half years of trying, many hard work, some tearful moments and a few holidays before the positive one came. In fact when the pregnancy test kit showed positive, Lilian couldn't believe it that she had to test 5 times with 5 different kits before it sinked in. Four kits were the normal +/- kit or the "double line" kit (of which one was done at her company GP) and wanting to be absolutely sure, she tested the 5th time on a digital kit that would show the word "Pregnant".

I was of course overjoy. Below are the series of ultrasound scans. The first was done roughly when he was 8 weeks old. He looked just like a kidney bean on the right of the black circle. BTW the black circle is the womb. This scan is basically to confirm he is well settled in the womb and not anywhere else (like the fallopian tube). Then when Prof. Ng measured his heartbeat, hearing the heartbeat of the fetus for the first time, the feeling was indescribable.

The second scan three weeks later showed the growing fetus and the placenta. His heartbeat was 171bpm then. Must be excited about us checking him out.

Then came the 12th week scan which is a detailed scan. This scan try to pick up any abnormalities early. You can see the head and the tummy in the scan below, as well as the little fist above the chin and the nose. This scan is also pretty scary for us cos they also test of possibility of Down's syndrome. The nurse took the reading on the nuchal skin fold thickness but didn't say much. Then she called a doctor in to take another reading. The doctor can only say should be ok, will await the blood test to be more conclusive. I sense its probably borderline but also feel the nurse reading might not be accurate (since 1/2 mm makes a difference and the way she measure like measure abit extra). They got us worried for a few days till the blood test result confirmed the possibility is very minimal.

I suddenly felt like a huge rock lifted off my chest. It was at this very moment that I became enlighten about what it means when people say it doesn't matter if your baby is handsome, smart, look like Brad Pitt or have double eyelids, as long as the baby is healthy. Having a healthy baby is all that matters.

To be continued...

Apollo Fresh Cockle Fried Kway Teow

Houston, we have a problem. The Apollo Fried Kway Teow is too irresistible. I'm sure most Singaporeans staying in the East side, particularly Marine Parade area would know this stall. Located at the back of the hawker center at Marine Parade, it serve the only wet Fried Kway Teow in Singapore.

The way I would describe the "wet" part would be its like Fried Kway Teow with the wetness of Satay Beehoon. The stall even has its own specially designed spoon for you to enjoy the wetness. Cooked with heaps of pork lard and juicy cockles, its full of flavour and oh so tasty. But not all people like this wet version so its a love it or hate it relationship, no sitting on the fence.

So if you prefer something lighter, the porridge stall in the same hawker center is also worth mentioning. Its full of generous ingredient and the texture of the porridge (not sure if I used the right word) is just nice. And I give extra points for the you tiao.

Blk 84 Marine Marine Parade Central
#01-174, Marine Parade Market and Food Centre
Singapore 440084




Blk 84 Marine Marine Parade Central
#01-165, Marine Parade Market and Food Centre
Singapore 440084

Homemade Popiah Party

I have received a number of encouraging comments for my food photos, most of them saying it made them hungry. That put a grin on my face as the photos had to be reasonably good to make you hungry right?

My mother's side of the family are quite closely knit and almost every Saturday would be a mini gathering. I remember going to my Grandmother's place at Queensway almost every Saturday to catch up with all the uncle aunties and of course to be treated to great food.

The venue has now changed to my big uncle's house but one thing never change, the presence of good food and great company. Though Lilian and I have not been going as often for the "weekly gathering", Popiah Party is never to be missed.

Good popiah party are hard to come by due to the huge amount of preparation work needed to prepare the ingredients. These includes lettuce leaves, grated carrot (by far the hardest to prepare), shredded omelette, bean spouts, prawns, hot chilli (sometimes makes or breaks a popiah), sweet dark sauce and grounded peanut. And when these are homemade, the popiah would often be so filled with ingredients that wrapping it becomes a challenge.

Different people have different ways of making their popiah and there is no right or wrong. I usually do mine on two Popiah skin (slightly apart so I can create a bigger popiah). I then put the lettuce on one end and start piling on the other ingredient starting with the grated carrot and ending with peanut over the sweet sauce.

Wrapping also requires speed and skill, expecially when I usually filled it like its gonna explode on first bite. Sometimes I even leave one end open while holding it vertical so I can pile more ingredients thru the opening. Greedy.

Below are some of the other stuff present at the table. The homemade wu xiang on the right and the tuna on the left were so good they were all gone before the end of the dinner. There were also yummy apple crumble bought by Rachel. Hope they made you hungry as well.

The Last Kampong of (Mainland) Singapore

Until 20 Jun 09, I did not know there was a kampong hidden right behind my backyard (well not exactly but its like a 5 mins drive from my place). Julia, my classmate from my Objectifs photography class presented her project on Kampong Lor Buangkok and it was only then did I came to know of this hidden gem.

Eager to go have a look and shoot some photos, I pitch the idea to Johnson. He readily agreed as he too wanted to hone his skills on his new Canon 500D. The morning got off to an embarrassing start for me. Johnson suppose to pick me up at 6.45am for some prata before we go shooting. But I woke up at 7.30am only to realise I set my alarm to ring at 6pm! My wife said I literally jumped out of bed. Thankfully Johnson was still downstairs waiting for me, while shooting flowers to hone his skills. What a buddy!

Situated off Yio Chu Kang Road, the entrance to the Kampong could be easily missed if not for this sign near the side road. We were attacked by army of hungry mosquitoes close to the entrance and the mosquitoes(or the itchy bites) got both of us "dancing" while trying to take some decent photos. But further into the kampong, the mosquitoes were non-existence.

After seeing Julie's photos on the kampong, I found myself unknowingly shooting the same photo objects as she did for her project. Below are some letterbox photos.

Another distinct sight is the overhead electricity cables. And of course that retro lamp post.

The houses are made of almost entirely from wood, some with zinc. Even caught someone reading newspaper by the window.

Understand that the authorities have intention to take back this land so the last kampong might disappear soon. If you wish to see all other photos taken that day, do visit my Flickr.

Blogger = Fail?

Its been a few days and yet not a solution is in sight. What am I talking about? It inability to post images on my blog using the "Add Image" icon.

Well, after selecting the image and doing the settings, I click "Upload image" button and the upload starts. When its done, I see a picture of the image I uploaded and the message, "After clicking 'Done' you can change your post and publish to your blog." And click 'Done' I did, except the image does not appear on my blog. Strange thing is, I can see the photo on my Pizacaweb album, meaning it was indeed uploaded successfully.

While I could embed link the images and it will appear on my blog, why should I go thru the trouble? Obviously something is broken...

Clearing the cache, disabling all browser addons, resetting my PC and still it does not work. Goggle and suddenly realise the whole blogger community is facing the same issue, for days. No indication when it will be fixed, the problem is also not listed in the "Known Issues" of Blogger Help Center.

Makes we wonder if Blogger = Fail, and if I should just switch to Wordpress?

Update 03 July 09: Its been almost a week and Blogger has done nothing. Apparently it doesn't affect all blogger (since Johnson can upload images as per normal) so I guess to them its not critical. Guess have to roll up my sleeves and do some html coding...